


West v. Wells: The Great Quickwest Last Name Debate

by sunkelles



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Het, Marriage, The Last Name Debate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 18:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13059399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Wally and Jesse get engaged and agree that they want to have the same last name. The catch? Both of them thinks that the other agreed to take their name.





	West v. Wells: The Great Quickwest Last Name Debate

**Author's Note:**

> so i started this before quickwest broke up in the show and you know what? fuck it. this is still good content. i'm polishing it up and posting it anyways. 
> 
> what is semester break for if not finishing all those fics you didn't have time to finish while school was in session?

Jesse brings it up pretty casually one day, completely out of the blue. 

"If I get married, I want my husband and I to have the same last name, you know?" Jesse said. 

"Yes, of course," Wally says, "I feel the same way." He feels like a sap as his brain imagines getting those return address stickers that say Wally and Jesse West. 

"Then there's no argument," Jesse says, smiling, "good." Wally's confused about why she's think he'd want to argue over that. 

"Plus it just makes things so much easier with kids. No arguments about what name they're getting when you share one." 

"You want kids right now?" Wally asks. He feels like he might be having a heart attack. He's twenty two years old. Kids aren't even on his radar yet. He doesn't have his degree yet. He doesn't have a job. 

Oh god, what would be even do with a kid at this point? Sure he loves Dawn and Henry, but kids of his own are out of the question at the moment. 

"Not right now, but at some point. Do you not?" Jesse asks, looking terrified by the possibility. 

"No, of course I do, Jess."  He doesn't want them until significantly down the line, but he wants kids. At the moment, he thinks he wants them with Jesse too. 

 

Six months later, he proposes. She says yes. 

 

It's later that night, curled up together on the couch, that the problems start. Jesse mentions not wanting to have the wedding until after she gets her Ph. D in Organic Chemistry in May. 

"I can't believe you'll be Dr. West someday," Wally says. Jesse sends him a confused look. 

"Uh, no," Jesse says, "I'm gonna be Dr. Wells." 

"I thought you said you wanted us both to share a name?" Wally knows that he remembers her saying that. 

"Uh, yeah," Jesse says, "mine." 

"That's why you thought there would be an argument," Wally says, and suddenly the gears turn right into place in his head. Suddenly, he thinks that this is gonna be far more complicated than he expected. 

"Yeah," Jesse says, "I knew you wouldn't argue with me about taking  _ your _ name." 

"Yeah, I wouldn't," Wally says firmly. 

"But I would," Jesse says, just as firmly. They're both stubborn people, and it's going to take a lot of convincing to get either of them (cough, Jesse, cough) to budge. Wally's not emotionally ready to deal with that at the moment. 

"We won't have the ceremony for at least eight months. It's not like we don't have time to sort it out." Jesse nods. 

"Alright," she says, "we have eight months to ... come to an agreement." Yeah, time for him to convince his fiancée to become Jesse West. 

  
  


They haven't made any decision by the time they go to dinner with the rest of the West clan on Sunday evening. 

"Would you please pass the potatoes, Future Dr. West?" Jesse grabs the potatoes from beside her, and tries not to grit her teeth together. 

"Why certainly, Future Mr. Wells."  Cecile and Joe are both looking at them with their mouths dropped. Jesse realizes, now, that they didn't get around to the actual announcement. 

"Is there something you'd like to tell us?" Joe asks evenly, all too evenly for someone who just found out his son is engaged through passive aggressive banter.  Jesse sends him a _ they're your parents _ look. 

"We're engaged!" Wally says. Everyone smiles then, and his dad smiles widest of all. 

"Congrats, son!" 

"Can I see the ring?" Iris asks, grinning. Jesse holds her hand out. 

"That's gorgeous," Iris says, and then in a conspiratorial tone she adds, "Wally pick that out all on his own?"

"Yes!" Wally says indignantly, "anything for my future Mrs. West." Jesse glares. 

"Future Mr. Wells." 

"Jesse West!" 

"Wally Wells! 

"Jesse West!" 

"Wally Wells!" 

"Jesse. West." Jesse storms off first. Wally, not to be outdone, storms off second but more loudly. Iris follows her brother. He’s sitting on the couch, brooding. Iris sits down beside him.

"So," Iris says, "last name troubles?" 

"Yeah, apparently." 

"Why can't you just hyphenate?" Iris asks. 

"We can't hyphenate," Wally says. 

"You could," Iris says, "you could be Wally West-Wells." 

"Iris, we can't. Do you know how awful that sounds. I don't wanna be www." 

"You could be Wells-West," she says, but then she grimaces, "that's worse. how is that worse?" 

"We both have last names that start with W, Iris. It was gonna sound bad either way." 

"Your name starts with a W and alliterates. It doesn't sound bad." 

"It doesn't, but do I really want to be WWW? The World Wide Web?" 

"You'd be the world wide Wally, actually." Wally just glares. 

"Why can't you just both keep your own name? That's what dad and Cecile did." 

"We can't. Then we'd just have this same fight when we have kids." 

"You two have talked about kids already?" Wally grimaces. This was the reaction he was expecting from her, actually. Iris and Barry didn't have kids until they were thirty two.  Then they just sped up the process by having two at once. 

"You're twenty two, Wally!"

"Not right now," Wally says, trying not to blow up on her, "Look, Jesse and I- We discussed this. We agreed we'd take the same name. I just- I kind of assumed we meant mine." 

"That's a little sexist, Wally."

"Well, you took Barry's last name." 

"We hyphenated. Our kids hyphenate, Wally. There's a difference." 

Okay, so their Christmas cards did say "greetings from the West-Allens", but Iris and the twins are more consistent about using the hyphenated name than Barry is. Iris signs all her articles "West-Allen" and corrects anyone who tries to just call her West or just call her Allen immediately. 

When Barry answers the phone for work he still says Allen, even though his legal documentation says West-Allen. Wally decides that he doesn't want to discuss the nuances of Iris and Barry's last name. Instead, he points out another reason he seemed perfectly sound in his assumption earlier. 

"Well, mom took dad's name, kept it even after they divorced. It just- it seemed natural."  

Being a guy, it was just always something he could assume. Someday, he was gonna meet the girl of his dreams. They'd fall in love, get married, and then she'd take his name. It just seemed like a natural part of the progression. 

"Alright," Iris says, "I guess this is something you two have to work out on your own." Wally nods. He realizes that. Almost a week after popping the question, they're no closer to the solution to that problem that they were when it first came up. 

Iris leaves him. Apparently, she sends dad in for backup. 

“So,” his dad says, “you two are engaged.” 

“Yeah,” Wally says.

"Do you guys have details planned out? Besides the last name, of course." 

"Jesse's gonna get her Ph. D in May, and we were thinking about getting married in July." 

"She hopes to have her Ph. D," his dad corrects. 

"Dad, have you met Jesse? She'll have it." His dad smiles. 

"You really do love that girl." Wally nods. In the past few years, Wally's only had four constants in his life: his family, being Kid Flash, school, and loving Jesse Wells. It's kind of a given at this point. 

“I do,” Wally admits, “I just wish we could agree.” 

“You mean you want her to agree to take your name,” his dad corrects. 

“Well, yeah,” Wally says, “don’t you?” He thought that was something that dads wanted, for their kids to pass their name on. Iris did that halfway, but Wally could do it all the way. 

"Yeah, I want you to be Wally West. I want you to keep my name and give me grand-babies that are Wests too. 

"I sense a but coming up here," Wally says. He doesn't want there to be a but. He wants someone's unwavering support in his unwavering quest to for them to become Mr. and Dr. West. 

"But I don't know if it's worth losing your girl over." 

"When it comes down to it, you two have to make that choice for yourself." 

"I'll support you no matter what." Joe pats him on the shoulder when he leaves him. Wally sighs, and puts his head into his hands. This is not going the way that he wanted it to 

 

The day after the family dinner from hell, Jesse goes to talk to her dad alone. The Wests are a social bunch. From strictly a legal standpoint, their members include Wally, Iris, Barry, Henry, Dawn and Cecile. That’s not even counting her, her dad, Cisco and Caitlin. But ever since Jesse was ten years old, her family has just been her and her dad. It feels wrong not to do this with just the two of them. 

“So,” her dad says as he hands her a mug of coffee, “what’s the news?” 

“Wally proposed,” Jesse says, sending her dad a smile. 

"You said yes?” he asks. 

“Yeah, I did,” she says. 

“You didn’t seem totally happy when you called me. What’s wrong? Do you want to back out?” 

“No,” Jesse says, “it’s nothing like that. It’s just- we both want to have the same name. I want him to take mine. He wants me to take his.” Her dad grins a little at that. 

"A misunderstanding about which name you're taking, a classic movie sitcom trope." On a rare occasions, her dad sounds like HR. This is one of those times. 

"Someone's gotta give," her dad says. He doesn’t give any indication of who that is. 

“Yeah, Wally does,” Jesse says firmly. 

“Are you sure?” her dad asks. 

"Wells is your legacy, dad." It’s his legacy, but it’s hers too. It's both of theirs, really. 

"How hard has it been explaining your name to people?" Pretty hard. Living in Central City and being in the scientific community, Wells has not been an easy last name for her to have. 

"How hard would it be if that name were West?" It wouldn't be. It might come up, but not with the same vitriol. If anything, it would probably be positive. 

"You know why your mom took my name?” her dad asks. 

“Why?” Jesse asks. Her mother died when she was so young that it was never a topic of conversation, especially since it’s pretty much expected in culture. 

“She took it so she could hold it over my head,” her dad says. 

“Really?” Jesse asks. 

“It wasn’t just that, of course, but that was one of the reasons. Whenever we got into a fight she’d say “remember Harrison, I didn’t have to take your name” and it would kind of piss me off, but it always worked.” Jesse doesn’t know why, but she laughs. That  _ does  _ sound like her mom. 

“You know my suggestion? Take his name, but never let him forget you didn't have to." Jesse considers that. Jesse West does have a nice ring to it. And admittedly, being Dr. West would be a lot less confusing than being a second Dr. Wells. 

"You'll always be my Jesse Quick," her dad promises her. Jesse grins. She speeds forward and kisses her dad on the cheek. 

“Thanks dad!” she shouts, then she speeds back to her apartment to meet her fiance and tell him the news.Wally is sitting on the couch, playing their favorite Star Wars game on the X-Box. 

“Jesse!” he exclaims. He seems to realize how excited he seemed, and clears his throat. He tries to regain his composure. 

“It’s nice to see you, future Dr. West,” he says. 

“Nice to see you too,” she says, plopping down beside him on the couch. 

“Wait?” he asks, “no witty retort. No future Mr. Wells?” He lets go of his controller, and then waves a hand in front of her face. 

“Are you alright, Quick?” She rolls her eyes. 

“I’m fine, KF,” she says, “I decided to take your name.” 

“Wait, really?” Wally asks, “you will?” 

“Yup,” Jesse says, “I will.” 

“Really? You’re gonna be Jesse West?” he sounds so excited by the prospect that Jesse finds herself completely happy with her decision. 

“Yup,” she says, then her stomach grumbles. She built up an appetite running to and from her dad’s house, and she didn’t even remember to stay for dinner. 

“You should go get me Big Belly Burger,” Jesse says. 

“Jess-” 

“Hey, I’m taking your name,” Jesse says. Wally grumbles, but he pauses his game flashes out of the room. A few moments later, he comes back with food for the both of them. 

“Is this gonna be a thing? _Do stuff for me because I’m taking your name_?” Wally asks. 

“Definitely,” Jesse says, “unless you want to take my name.” Wally grimaces. 

“Nope,” he says, “favors it is.” Jesse smiles. She thinks that this was the right decision. 


End file.
